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Now Pay Less for IHG Points With the Points & Cash Trick

December 29, 2015
by
Million Mile Secrets Million Mile Secrets

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Million Mile SecretsMillion Mile Secrets Team

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The IHG Points & Cash trick is a great way to save money on purchasing IHG points. With it, you can buy IHG points for as little as ~0.6cents per point. That’s an excellent deal!

I’ll review how IHG’s Points & Cash works and how you can use it to get an even better deal on award stays!

What’s the Deal?

IHG allows you to book award nights using a combination of points and cash. This means if you don’t have enough points for an award night (or don’t want to use them all), you can buy the points you need to make up the balance.

It’s a good way to stretch your points for more nights! But there’s a way to use this method to “buy” IHG points at a reduced rate!

When you select the Points + Cash method of payment you will need fewer points to book the hotel. So you’re essentially buying IHG points.

But if you cancel your reservation before the deadline, IHG will NOT refund your money. Instead, they’ll refund the points you purchased!

You Can Buy IHG Points Cheaply With the Points + Cash Trick!

As an example, an award night at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Napa Valley costs 30,000 IHG points. But the Points + Cash rate, on the night I looked, was only 15,000 IHG points + $89.

So if you book a refundable Points + Cash rate and then cancel, you’ll get 15,000 IHG points back, which you paid $89 for. That’s only ~0.6 cents per point ($89 rate/ 15,000 IHG points)!

The Points + Cash rates vary by hotel, so you’ll have to do some research to find the best deals.

That said, not everyone is comfortable using this trick to buy IHG points at a cheaper rate. If you decide to do it, always double-check you’re making a refundable reservation (take note of the cancellation deadline!).

Sweeten the Deal!

These PointBreaks hotels were already a terrific bargain, because by using the Points & Cash trick you could effectively get a PointBreaks night for ~$30 to ~$90 (5,000 to 15,000 IHG points x ~0.6 cents per point).

Super Deal! Stay in Expensive IHG Hotels for Just 5,000 IHG Points per Night With PointBreaks ($30 If You Buy the Points With This Trick!)

If you’d otherwise pay for an IHG stay anyway, it’s worth doing the math to see if buying points with this method and booking an award night (not just PointBreaks) is a better deal than paying cash for the room.

As always, only do what you’re comfortable with. And make sure the hotel you want to book has available award nights first!

Bottom Line

You can “buy” IHG points for only 0.6cents per point by making refundable Points & Cash award bookings, then cancelling them.

There are a handful of IHG hotels where you can pay $90 cash for a 15,000 IHG point discount on your award night. That’s like getting the points for 0.6 cents each ($90 cost of points / 15,000 points).

If you have to cancel, you won’t get the cash back. But you will get your 15,000 IHG points!

Not everyone is comfortable using this technique, so as always, do what works for you.

Let me know if you find other IHG hotels with a great Points & Cash rate!

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Earn 80,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening plus an additional 40,000 bonus points after spending a total of $5,000 on purchases within 6 months of account opening

Enjoy a Free Night after each account anniversary year at eligible IHG hotels worldwide. Plus, enjoy a free reward night when you redeem points for any stay of 4 or more nights

Earn 10 points per $1 spent when you stay at an IHG hotel

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Global Entry or TSA Pre✓® Fee Credit of up to $100 every 4 years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to your card

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18.24% - 25.24% Variable

$89

Yes

Rates & Fees

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Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

7comments

It’s worth mentioning “buying” points this way also earns 5 qualifying points/$1 spent when using the IHG MasterCard to reserve the stay. And you can book through a cash portal to earn upwards of 10% Cashback through IHG! I used this method to pad my account for two overwater bungalow nights at the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa. Woohoo!! Thanks for the cheaper heads up!

IHG Priceless Surprise Promotion, I sent 20 entries into this promotion a week before Christmas and haven’t seen anything in my email, or spam. Are they closed til after the first of the year? Does anyone have an email offering points from them for this promotion with their email so I can whitelist it?

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)